In light of the fact that I’m now writing my last power rankings of the season (I think…admittedly, I haven’t been paying close attention to the schedule) and it’s only week 3, safe to say this abbreviated season has been very, very weird. I generally find myself (and the fans that follow me on Twitter) not as invested as I would be on a full 10-week season, and I think I really and truly don’t have any investment in one couple winning over another. All the pros left have never won before – so we will have a new pro champion, regardless; and that’s really enough for me, since I think their respective celebs have all had very satisfying, fulfilling journeys on the show this season. I’m actually finding myself more and more pumped to get started on DWTS Junior – more on that in the coming weeks 😉

So this week, Grandpa was back as a judge, and while I don’t think he was necessarily as helpful as Shad when it came to judging, I’m glad he was there to be the “nice” judge, and occasionally throw an optimistic bone to the couples that maybe didn’t do so hot (as evidenced by his tendency to dissent on the ballroom battles – bless him). I’ve heard a few people throwing shade in Grandpa & Shad’s direction, claiming that they “weren’t qualified” to judge, and at this point I have to ask “Have you guys actually been watching the show? And comprehending what’s been going on?” Nearly none of the guest judges are “qualified” in the same sense that the Three Stooges are – and for that, I’m glad. I don’t need another Len getting grumpy about content, or another Carrie Ann incoherently babbling about non-existent lifts, or another Bruno flamboyantly gushing about whatever it is he gushes about – anymore, it’s kind of nice to have someone on the panel that can look at a dance from a non-technical perspective and say “Y’know what? That may not have been technically perfect, but I enjoyed it!” And really, the extra points dump from a 4th judge only makes the margins closer, so it basically gives more power to the viewer vote. So if you’re bitching & moaning about unqualified judges at this point – you’re out of your element, Donnie.

We also got some pseudo-quasi mentoring from returning celebs Meryl, Nastia, & Von – and in the case of the latter, I’m thinking this was probably all thrown together fairly last-minute, as Von couldn’t even be present to actually mentor his couples in person, and did his mentoring via Skype. Have to wonder if they had another returning celeb lined up, and they had to cancel at the last minute, necessitating the scramble for another and Von maybe just happened to be (semi)available. The bumpers we got from these returning celebs ranged from rather marginal (Von) to “Ok, but was that the best choreo you could give her?” (Meryl) and “Actually pretty decent, but man was the camera work terrible!” (Nastia), and seemed like a bit of an afterthought overall. I have a love-hate relationship with the random ways they try to bring back former contestants, as it’s usually pretty flimsy, but in the same token, I do love seeing (some) alums of the show back in the ballroom.

Not a whole lot else to add – seems like the writing is on the wall with this one. Shall we? Read more..

If it felt weird last week to be 1/4 way through this season, it feels even weirder that we’re at the halfway point this week – and the votes from tonight’s show are determining the finalists. I still feel like I’m getting to know these couples…and some of them are still finding their groove…and already I’m having to pick who the ultimate contenders for the MBT are. Is this what it felt like back in season 1? Thirteen years has fogged my memory of those simpler times 😛

I hereby nominate Shad Jennings as the gold standard for guest judges on DWTS 🙂 Seriously, the guy could not have done a better job – he somehow managed to give very personal, very relevant critiques to each couple, while remaining encouraging and keeping it brief. He wasn’t wordy and petty like Donny O., he wasn’t nitpicky & self-aggrandizing like Alfonso, he didn’t try to turn everything into a joke like Kevin Hart, he didn’t ramble on aimlessly like Shania, and he managed to give more than the standard boilerplate “It was great!” responses like Zendaya. Anymore, I couldn’t care less whether the guest judge actually critiques the dance – leave it to three stooges to actually point out the negatives, and let the guest judge be more of a motivator that just happens to score pretty closely to what the stooges do. Shad did just that – and damn, if that man isn’t articulate AF…Shad, if you need a new gig, can you just come narrate my life? Pretty sure you could give an eloquent play-by-play of me flossing my teeth. 😛

Sometimes, I find myself giggling at some of the truly wacky sh*t they make the troupe members do – reminds me of the dumb stuff we made the pledges do back when I was in my sorority, although the fraternities usually far bested us in the “weird stuff to make the pledges do” category. As the sweetheart of one house, I once had pledges of that particular fraternity walking me to class HOLDING AN UMBRELLA OVER MY HEAD for one entire, rainy week, a la Diddy & his hip-hop manservant, Fonzworth Bentley (anyone remember whatever happened to that guy?). Watching Brandon running around in a bear suit, or Hayley doing salsa with Lindsay on her shoulders, or watching the rest of the troupe duck through Kareem’s legs like an never-ending clown car last night just drives the point home that they really do kinda haze the troupe members, before they let them become pros 😛

So with last night’s votes basically determining the three couples who make the finals (and contrary to what fans seemed to be saying last week, it is only THREE couples, not four), I’m left feeling a bit wishy-washy about at least two of those couples. Gun to my head, I think Adam makes it to the finals no matter what, and Jennie doesn’t, no matter what; the other two spots could be any combination of the remaining four couples – my gut says they’re going to do whatever they can to ensure Mirai ends up in the finals, so she’s probably in, too; I think Tonya deserves the third spot in the finals (and I think the producers would absolutely DROOL at the prospect of an all-figure skater finale), but Josh could possibly take it as well if he really does get the NFL vote, and if Chris does well next Monday, he could also be the dark horse, a la Frankie, for that third spot. Really, though – at the rate he’s going, I’d be shocked if anyone other than Adam won this season. Granted, he could (but probably won’t) have an off-week next week or in the actual finals, and it could make it a tighter race between he & Mirai…but at the end of the day, I think Adam pulls this off, no matter what. Read more..

Greetings from Houston 🙂 I’ve been on vacation since Thursday, and started off bumming around Denver with my sister before heading to hang out at my aunt’s in Magnolia, TX on Sunday. Happy Halloween, and GO ASTROS!!! 🙂

So the dreaded double elim hit last night, and I think it was kind of a dick move to get both Nikki & Vanessa up there and then go “Surprise! You’re both going home.” Sure, they probably at least had an inkling, but still – dick move, bruh. Can’t say I’m too disappointed to see Vanessa & Maks go – it was getting pretty uncomfortable watching them, and while I think Vanessa was hoping to make it further, I think she may have had a nervous breakdown before long; I get the feeling she’s leaving the show with a bit of a disillusioned, Marilu Henner-esque view of her experience: something she wanted so badly for so long, but it ended up not being nearly as fun as she had hoped. As for Nikki – I had no issues with her, and I do think she was screwed a bit in the grand scheme of this season, but who I really feel for is Artem – for the second season in a row, I think he was unfortunately a victim of circumstance, and his partner was sacrificed in order to keep someone else in the competition longer. Like Mark, he was the only male pro that I thought was making an honest effort to give his partner the best choreo and experience he could – and he still got screwed. I may have seen it coming, but this is one instance I was hoping to be wrong. I would say I hope he gets a contender next season, but given that he’s had two contenders in a row now and STILL gotten shafted, maybe I should start hoping he gets a Bindi or the female equivalent of a Hinch/Grandpa – someone that outwardly isn’t a contender, but ends up just being a natural. I recommend Sarah Michelle Gellar, who was in the audience last week 😎

Halloween week…was Halloween week, and anymore, it doesn’t really seem to vary much from season to season. The team dances as a whole were a scoring/critique dumpster fire, and no amount of ABC posting how “great!” Team Phantom was is going to convince me it’s true – stop trying to gaslight us, ABC. I guess I’m lightweight curious to see these trios next week, because I think there’s some potential for some showstoppers (Jordan/Lindsay/Corbin, Lindsey/Mark/Kristi, Frankie/Witney/Alfonso…that last one in particular has me particularly curious), some fun, sentimental reunions (Drew/Emma/Rashad), and some head-scratchers (Victoria/Val/Laurie, Terrell/Cheryl/Kelly). To those speculating that Vanessa & Nikki were eliminated because they didn’t have trio members for them – stop. A little birdie told me they actually had quite a few former contestants on-deck that were willing and able to step in, but they were able to be picky & choosy and select the best fit for each couple. Allegedly, Danica was on the list, which makes sense, given that she’s an L.A. local and a decent dancer – my guess is that she may have gone to Vanessa & Maks, since Maks partnered here during switch week in season 18. If I had to guess (and really, this is just a guess, because I have no idea what other names were on the list), I think Lea may have been a good pick for Nikki & Artem, as she’s L.A. local and a decent dancer. Fun fact: the “bring back a former celeb for the trio” idea was originally kicked around as one of the many lofty ideas the producers had for All-Stars, but with all the flying by the seat of their pants that they had to do that season, it got scrapped. Read more..

The songs: Medleys again – Team Boy Band has a medley of the Jackson 5, New Kids on the Block (“The Right Stuff”), and One Direction; Team Girl Group has “My Boyfriend’s Back” by The Angels, “No Scrubs” by TLC, and something by Fifth Harmony (of course).

The captains: No captains this time.

Source says: The female pros weren’t all that jazzed about the music at first, but it started to grow on them as they started to choreograph; the male celebs, however, were psyched and getting really into coming up with boy band moves to try out. To quote Deep Throat, “I’ve never seen a group of celebs so enthusiastic about the team dance!” Team Girl Group seemed a bit more subdued, and seemed to be letting the pros choreograph. To my knowledge, no – Heather was not helping choreograph.

Court’s thoughts: I think the men will probably take this one just based on enthusiasm alone – I tend to find if the group really LIKES their dance, they’re going to perform it better; just look at the differences from the team dances last season. I think team Girl Group’s choreo will likely be more difficult, but I don’t know that that’s necessarily a good thing if they aren’t all that jazzed about the dances they’re doing.

UPDATE: Added pictures…so far, @DancingABC has only posted pix of Team Boy Band. But I’ll be damned if this doesn’t look like a fun group…Peta looks the most excited we’ve seen her all season 🙂

Lindsay did her weekly interview with ET, and talked about she & Calvin’s jive and the team dance. She also touched on Sharna’s injury (turns out those gorgeous team dance dresses were pretty treacherous!) and also their dance for week 8. More below…

ET: Calvin’s footwork was perfect last night, but even if he did mess up, his smile and personality would have made up for it. He looked like he was having so much fun up there!

Lindsay Arnold: So true! His performance level was out of this world last night. You know what, it’s funny though, because I don’t think it was his favorite during rehearsals. But then last night he was like, “Wow, that was the first time I really danced it and had fun with it.” Jive is not easy at all — you have to be dancing 150 percent!

The ’50s was such a fun era. Were you and Calvin stoked when you got that decade? How do you plan to top that routine next week?

We were really excited, because Calvin loves that kind of music. I feel like that [era] is his inner personality. It was a great style for him, and enabled him to really bring out his inner Calvin. Next week we have the quick step, which is similar to jive in the way that it’s very high energy, but we’re back in frame, which we haven’t been in for a couple of weeks. It will be cool, I think, to show his improvement on that as well.

During rehearsals for the team dance, Sharna Burgess suffered a knee injury. What exactly happened? Is she doing OK?

In our dress rehearsal, it was the first time we had done the dance in our ball gowns, which were beautiful, but a bit too long. All of us were slipping on them. Calvin tripped on mine at one point and kind of ripped my skirt during rehearsal. James [Hinchcliffe] and Sharna actually took a fall. James tripped on her dress and it caused them both to fall down, and she tweaked her knee a little.

It’s a little bit scary, especially before the live show, because if something happens to us [pros], we still have got to try and make it happen. I’m hoping today that she’s feeling a bit better. She’s been taking great care of it, icing it, but it’s scary because our bodies are our work — we have to take care of them — but we also don’t want to let our partners or our team down.

Last night after the show, she said it was still bothering her but that she’s going to be OK after some rest. I’ll definitely be checking up on her!

Whenever I fill in on the live blog for Heidi, and also simultaneously tweet and take notes for the power rankings, I always worry that I’m gonna just end up repeating the same stuff over and over, and run out of things to say – but oddly enough, live blogging AND tweeting AND taking notes actually helped me work through week 2 of the Topamax brain fog this week, so I feel a lot more lucid now and I’m finding it a lot easier to form coherent thoughts. Silver linings 🙂

There seemed to be a rather interesting line drawn between some of the pros tonight – that line separating the pros who tend to do a lot of “messing about” and time-wasting, and pros who are savvy enough to stay true a theme while still managing to waste very little time getting down to business and making sure their celeb is dancing for the bulk of their time on-stage. And that line did not go unnoticed by the judges – particularly Len, who seemed to be trying to get the train back on the tracks after they went a bit off the rails with some funky scoring in his absence. He not-so-subtly shaded more than one pro for “messin’ about” while praising others for getting down to business. What I found a tad unnerving, though, was the way some of the pros seemed to get mouthy back at him, and dismissed some pretty valid points he was making with the usual “Len, you’re old and tired” cliches that have been done to death, but still get a chuckle out of the audience. Actually found myself really bothered by the jet lag comment from Val, and the fact that Julianne backed it up – Len definitely wasn’t talking out of his ass, and they just kind of poo-poohed it away. Not cool, and I would love to see someone call Julianne out for being a drama queen and hyperbolizer and have Len back them up on the air, and see how she likes it.

On the whole, I think those who ended up with “novelty” or “extra” dances (i.e. Charleston, jitterbug) probably were scored relatively a bit easier than those who got stuck with one of the core ballroom or Latin dances this week, as it seemed like it was easier to parlay the novelty dances to fit the eras theme than it was to make the stricter Latin & ballroom ones without sacrificing content. And I think that’s something that probably needs to be spelled out for the pros as they begin choreographing the dances, and the judges probably need to spell it out at the beginning of shows like this – maybe explain what they’re looking for in terms of attention paid to the theme vs. amount of syllabus steps, explain whether lifts are allowed, etc. – because there did seem to be some confusion, not only among the pros, but the judges themselves. Or that could just be them making things up as they go along, who knows 😛 Mo going home = seemed like the right time. Like Amber, I just did not get the impression that it was fun for her anymore, and her relationship with Artem seemed pretty…strained. But next week’s elim will likely hurt, because if it is who I think it is – this person is still having a lot of fun and will not want to leave 🙁 Read more..

VOOOOONNNNNNNN! Not my human redwood/teddy bear/chicken man! 🙁 I think Von was the first elim this season that really stung for me – while I liked Doug & Marla, I recognized that they had probably peaked already and weren’t going to improve much; Von, on the other hand, I thought was just starting to realize his potential. I don’t think a lot of folks realized just how hard he was working – or how much fun he was having. Did I see him as finale material? Nah, but I wouldn’t have minded seeing him at least entertain us till week 9. Oh well – guess TPTB determined that there was more money to be had in backing Antonio than Von, and engineered ways to make the former look better while just kinda letting the latter do whatever on his own. If I had it my way – it would have been Antonio sent packing instead of Von. At least Von was actually trying, and came across as a down-to-earth human being, rather than a narcissistic robot.

As for Kim – can’t say I was terribly surprised or disappointed, as I had been saying for weeks that she had been playing it a bit too safe this season. Kim’s dances were never bad – she was always on time, and seemed to be having a lot of fun; but they were never really particularly memorable, either – and with a season like this, where you’ve got so many powerhouses, you’ve really gotta pack a punch. I find it interesting that Kim seemed so blindsided by her elim – I had heard from a source that they overheard Kim say a few weeks back that she was “fairly sure” she was going to make the finals. Not sure if Sasha is just THAT positive a teacher that he convinced her of this, or Kim just didn’t quite see the writing on the wall, but denial is not just a river in Egypt, Kim…he’s also Peta’s partner, and the guy that’s probably going to win this season 🙂

Which brings me to my next point: what does it mean that we’ve now seen Jodie, Paige, & Wanya in jeopardy, while Nyle, Antonio, & Ginger have yet to land there? I saw a lot of folks asking me to make sense of this on Twitter, and while I myself am not by any means sure of what to make of it, my best theory is this: they’re using jeopardy as a warning for some, but just as a way to boost votes for others. At this point, I still think this season is Nyle’s to lose; however, I don’t think TPTB want it to appear obvious that Nyle is running away with the trophy already. They gotta make it a horse race, so it benefits them to give a bit of a boost to the couples that stand the best chance of giving Nyle a run for his money in the finale (Wanya & Paige). Paige lands in jeopardy last week; Wanya this week. I don’t by any means think that either is a low vote-getter, but I do think TPTB may be rallying the troops to ensure those two land in the finale with Nyle. As for Jodie – I think her being in jeopardy two weeks in a row was an effort to keep a better dancer around over a less-skilled one (part of me thinks that Doug may have actually been beating Jodie in votes during those first few rough weeks she had), and now that she’s one of the weaker dancers left – there’s no need to protect her anymore. Somebody’s gotta go home, and I don’t see them keeping Jodie over Paige or Ginger. I don’t think Kim just suddenly fell into the bottom 2 in the past week – she’s probably been there before, and perhaps TPTB just didn’t see fit to try and save her. As for Ginger & Antonio? TPTB may be starting to see the writing on the wall there – Ginger is not nearly the dancer that Paige is, and Antonio has been a colossal disappointment. They probably owe it to the ABC fam to at least make sure Ginger makes it to week 9, and with 2 of the 3 NFL’ers already gone, I guess they maybe want to enjoy Antonio as long as they can…but I think it will be a complete joke if the latter in particular makes the finale over Wanya or Paige. Big credibility killer there. I think it’s getting to the point that it may be painfully obvious to just about everyone that a Nyle, Wanya, & Paige finale is the most logical scenario…so I don’t know that it really behooves TPTB to try and shake that up too much. But hey, what do I know…I’m just a lowly blogger 😛 Read more..

Well, as it was announced on the show last night, for the first time ever, they’ve opted to pit the guys vs. the gals – and to clarify, that is the male celebs and their female pros vs. the female celebs and their male pros. Everyone is still with their partner, guys – it wasn’t all the male pros & male celebs vs. all the female pros and female celebs, as someone on Twitter was claiming. Nice try guys…thanks for playing. 🙂

As Antonio announced on Instagram, the guys have James Brown as their icon – and source says the teams are actually dancing to a medley of songs from their icon, so I’m guessing it’s going to be 2-3 of the artist’s big hits. The gals have Beyonce as their icon – be prepared for a lot of hair-flipping, I think. I’m sure “Crazy In Love” will be part of the girls’ medley…as for the guys, I’m thinking “Sexmachine” will work its way in 😛

Also the dances are freestyles, so pretty much anything goes – I was told that Mark and Val were cracking up while samba rolling each other during rehearsal last night. Boys will be boys, I guess 😛

My thoughts? I have a feeling things are going to tip slightly in the favor of Team James Brown, because I think the guys on that team are probably going to have an easier time embodying James’ style than the girls on Team Beyonce will have emulating hers. Plus I think Lindsay, Peta, Sharna, & Witney are probably cumulatively slightly better than Mark, Val, Keo, & Sasha. But that’s just me – and I actually wouldn’t be at all shocked if the teams tied. Hell, this is the first time in 5 years that Derek hasn’t been part of the team dance…wonder if that means the pressure’s kinda off for the remaining pros?

Well…if the crew set out to hotbox the studio, they succeeded 😛 Seriously, though – what a colossal production FUBAR. I could barely see some of the dances through all that smoke, and trying to even see the judges and Tom afterwards was a struggle. I have to wonder if it negatively affected some of the couples as well – especially the ones that stuck to the main floor and didn’t hop up on any platforms. Talk about props getting in the way – and this, kids, is why themes can really screw up an otherwise decent evening. BEWARE THE SMOKE MONSTER.

And the smoke wasn’t the only monster in the ballroom last night. Unfortunately, I felt like at least 2/3 members of the judges panel devolved into gossipy teenage girls when giving critiques, and came across as vindictive and childish. I’m also completely OVER the whole “Derek’s never lost!” plotline they pose in every team dance, so now that he’s actually lost – can we please come up with something more compelling to talk about? It was clear Derek didn’t give a rat’s ass, and perhaps the only ones that did were a certain other pro and his fans. It’s time to find some new material, guys.

On the upside? I actually found Leah a lot more natural and enjoyable last night, and she seemed much more at ease. Much more like the Leah I loved hosting back in season 19. As for Hayes getting eliminated – he did far better than I thought he would this season, so I give him BIG props there. But though I hate to say it, I think he’s partially responsible for his own elimination – as I mentioned last week, he seemed to place too much emphasis on #VoteForTeamSlayes trending on Twitter and not nearly enough on actual voting…and when your fanbase is a bunch of impressionable teenage girls that will blindly follow your every whim, I think you need to be VERY CLEAR on what it is you need from them. Remember, kids: as much emphasis as this show sometimes puts on social media, Twitter hashtags will not keep you in this competition – only votes will. So you may as well forget about Twitter and just focus on the votes…something to keep in mind next week… Read more..